I first came across Chanee on Instagram through a friend and she’s become one of my favourite accounts and people to follow! As a WBFF bikini pro turned mindset, fitness and life coach she’s always sharing great information on mindset, a long term, healthy and sustainable approach to food and some awesome life tips in general. It’s always so great to see people in the fitness industry (and especially in general on social media) who are genuine, positive and focused on health and self love! Let’s find out more about Chanee and don’t forget to give her a follow too (links at the end of the interview)!

Hey Chanee! Can you give us a quick intro to yourself and your life?

HI! I’m a high performance fitness and life coach. I live in California with my husband and 4 min pins #dogmom haha. I love coffee, reading books & helping my clients change their lives. I specialise in helping woman in 2 ways, the first is to restore their metabolism after years of competition or yo-yo dieting & healing their relationship with food and body through that process. The second is through transformative life coaching, this is for the woman who desires to step into the next level version of her life.

Chanee Momoko interview

Tell us more about your own personal health and fitness journey to becoming a WBFF Bikini Pro:

Oh gosh alright we have to go way back to 2012 when I first became aware of the whole “clean eating” trend. I was a Junior in college (university) and started to workout and eat healthy admittedly because I had an ex- boyfriend who told me I needed to lose weight. So what started out as something negative turned into a huge positive for me. I started prioritising me time (aka gym time), learned how to cook and loved the way it made me feel to take care of myself.

Towards the end of that year I made a new gym friend who introduced me to the world of bodybuilding and I was instantly smitten with the perfect hair and makeup, with the gorgeous bikinis and super toned bodies. I decided then there to sign up for one, 6 months later (and I’m skipping ALL the struggles here lol) I was on stage and I won first place and my WBFF Pro card at my first show. Since then I’ve competed 6x, won second place as a pro & have coached many women to the stage, 4 of them receiving their pro cards between 2018-2019.

chanee momoko

What’s your overall health and fitness philosophy?

Get strong and love yourself is the gist of it. It has changed over the years as I’ve evolved and grown. My philosophy now is very holistic encompassing mind, body and nutrition. After years of being in the competition industry as an athlete and coach I heavily focused on the aesthetics & neglected the internal work. I now believe that our mental health is just as important as our physical health. I believe in helping women reach their goals by educating and empowering them with the tools & skills to have sustainable fitness, nutrition & mindset practices for life.

chanee momoko

How did you get into fitness and coaching as a career, and what do you love most about this?

Growing up I had always known I wanted to help people but I wasn’t sure how! I went to school for City and Regional Planning, and when I competed in my first show my senior year the transformation I had undergone was pretty amazing. By focusing on my fitness and keeping the goal for myself of competing, I created a new found love and respect for myself. I decided I would love to help other women make that transformation within themselves and that’s what got me started. After graduating from college I went straight into personal training & year 4 years after that I started my online coaching business. It was really amazing to have found my passion, the thing I love the most about my career in fitness is being able to truly help people.

chanee momoko

What advice would you give people wanting to start out on their own health and fitness journey? And, for those who are looking to compete, what advice would you give first time competitors?

Start with making one promise to yourself and keep it. It could be drinking 3L of water everyday or committing to a daily walk at lunch. Once you start keeping promises to yourself the whole journey becomes doing this for yourself versus for a specific outcome.

My biggest advice for first time competitors is to first make sure they are not picking a show to get into shape and give themselves plenty of time. I’d recommend starting a year out to be honest! Reverse Diet to get your calories up as high as possible so that when it comes time for your prep you are setting yourself up for success.

chanee momoko

For a lot of people, females especially, dieting can be the hardest part of getting fit. How do you help your clients with this aspect? And what are some common mistakes in general you see people making with their diets?

First I work on my clients mindset before we even begin talking about nutrition. Many of the clients I work with struggle with all or nothing mentality and emotional eating due to too much dieting in the past. With my Life Coaching background I’m able to help them change their thinking & get to the root of their emotional eating and teach them skills on how to cope with their stress so they don’t turn to food.

Then we talk about nutrition! The biggest mistake I see people making is cutting out food groups and eating way, way below their metabolic baseline leading a slow metabolism and no changes. That’s where I teach the #143Method & Reverse Dieting to help my clients make balanced meals and learn how to eat enough so that they can get off the diet roller coaster and make sustainable changes for life.

chanee momoko

You’ve created the #143 method approach to dieting, can you explain what this is?

It’s more of a lifestyle change than a diet! Like I said earlier, a lot of my clients have struggled with dieting too often or too much and find themselves on a roller coaster. They are scared of carbs or fats and have sooo many food rules. This method simplifies how to eat & what to eat so that more mental energy can be used towards achieving other goals in life (spirit, career, family, friends etc) instead of just being focused on their aesthetics.

chanee momoko 143 method

You also mention reverse dieting, can you quickly explain this process?

Reverse Dieting is the process of increasing your calories up over time, it’s the “diet” after the diet so to speak. This process is great for anyone who just completed a competition or for anyone who has found themselves dieting for a prolonged period of time. When we diet for too long, our metabolism adapts to the lower calories, so by spending 6-8 weeks (minimum) working on getting your calories high again we can rebuild your metabolism, break through plateaus, get strong, re-balance hormones and find a new appreciation and love for our bodies.

Note: you can download Chanee’s FREE Reverse diet guide by clicking this link here! If you also want to learn more, you can also join the waitlist for her course launching July 15 here.

chanee momoko

How important do you think mindset is? And what are some ways you try and work on this?

Its my favourite thing to teach and the core of my coaching! I work on my own mindset daily through journaling, meditation, breathwork and reading. I have a high level mastermind course called “Mindset Makeover Academy” where I take 10 women & for 10 weeks we dive deep into all things mindset and revamp their lifestyles from the inside out. So you could say that I think its THE most important thing lol!

Back to training, what are some of your favourite exercises?

I love all compound movements. My training philosophy is to get strong!! You will always find me in the gym chasing strength goals for deadlifts, squats, hip thrusts and pull ups.

Finally, what’s your favourite motivational quote?

How you do one thing, is how you do everything.

Chanee Momoko interview 2

Connect with Chanee

chaneemomoko.com
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Reverse Diet Guide | Reverse Diet Guide Course

Author

Sophie is the owner and creator of The Beautiful Existence. A Melbourne based self proclaimed nerd, gym junkie and lover of all things creative, tasty and well designed!

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